His.

"Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. [...] Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." (Jeremiah 1, vs. 3-10, 1-19)

Last night, we had our first interview, over the phone with Bro. Mark Lindberg. It was about an hour and a half long, and I probably talked three times as much as Grant. :) (No one is surprised, I know). But of course, after such an interview, you (well, me, anyway) think back on it and you're like, "What in the world was I thinking when I said that...?" But then we came home and opened up to this chapter. God was speaking directly to us, and I believe the passage above needs no further explanation. We were so encouraged and it was such a beautiful reminder that no matter what we said, our words are not our own.

I don't remember where it was, if it was in our quiet time or in church recently, but Galatians 2 has come to mind several times. Actually, a girl in one of my classes had Galatians 2:20 printed on the front of her binder last semester, and it was a constant reminder of who I am and where I came from. It says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." In other words, everything we are and do and say... is Christ living within us and our lives are not our own.


This morning I read I Corinthians 15. In verse 10, Paul writes, "By the grace of God, I am what I am". We are not our own. We are God's, placed on this Earth by Him to serve Him in a way that He has ordained. He knew us "before I formed thee in the belly". We are, always have been, and always will be... His.